The Yankees Trade and the Cubs Designate

By Baseball Babble on July 22, 2014

Two interesting moves have taken place in major league baseball. The Yankees made a trade, and the Cubs designate a player for assignment.

First, the Yankees trade. Earlier today the Yankees traded for starting third baseman Chase Headley. The Yankees sent infielder Yangervis Solarte and right-handed Rafael De Paula to the San Diego Padres. De Paula was in Class A Advanced Tampa when the trade was made where he had struck out 154 batters in 138 innings, but in two seasons in the minors he has compiled a 4.83 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP. The good thing is that he has an excellent fastball in the mid 90’s, but the bad thing is, he seemingly has nothing else.

Solarte has some decent numbers in this his first year in the big leagues. He has 64 hits in 75 games, he has a .254 average and possibly most impressive of all he has struck out 34 times while walking 30 times. He is a switch hitter and most important, unlike Headley, he is under club control for the next few years while Headley will be a free agent at year’s end.

Speaking of Headley, who is also a switch hitter, his 2014 has been abysmal batting .229 with 7 home runs and 32 RBI’s in 77 games. But, since July 4th he is batting .339 with 4 doubles, 8 RBI’s with both a triple and a homer. The Yankees also received $1 million in cash to off-set Headley’s remaining approximately $4 million 2014 salary.

The other interesting move was made by the Chicago Cubs. They designated second baseman Darwin Barney for assignment. Since the start of 2013 he has a slash line of .214/.266/.311 and in the saber metric world he has been barely above replacement with the bat for the last 2 seasons. But, he defensive skill set is tremendous. He was #1 in fielding percentage at second base in both the 2012 and 2013 seasons, his career fielding percentage is .990 which is 3rd among all active second baseman, he had the most put-outs at second base in 2012 and also won the gold glove at second base that year.

The move was made to clear a roster spot for returning infielder Emilio Bonifacio from the disabled list.